Ramaiya Vasta Vaiya Hindi Movie
Considering the kind of films Prabhu Deva has made in the past, it comes as a surprise to see his name tagged to the movie. There have been reports in the past that apparently most of the film has been directed by his assistant director for the star choreographer turned filmmaker had way too busy with his future projects. One look at Ramaiya Vastavaiya and you start accepting that there really must be truth in that gossip. Not that Prabhu Deva has made films that have won critics' hearts but even by his masala potboiler standards, this Shruti Haasan starrer romantic film doesn't stand a chance.
Reeking of cliches of the '80s and '90s Ramaiya Vastavaiya traces the story of a poor girl Sona (Shruti Haasan) whose farmer brother (Sonu Sood) can go to any length to keep her happy. Sona scoots off to her best friend's wedding and during the course of her 15 day stay falls head over heels in love with her best friend's cousin from Australia Ram (Girish Kumar). All hell breaks loose when the elders of the family get to know of this rich-boy-poor-girl love story. Accusing the girl of maneuvering the boy to fall in love with her, they make the two break up. The girl is sent packing off back to her village but the boy soon follows her till there and on being questioned about his worthiness and love for the girl by her brother gets onto the mission to prove himself!
One wonders what the target audience of this romantic saga is because there barely must be people who wouldn't have seen Maine Pyar Kiya or Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya. The movie despite being a remake of Prabhu Deva's debut Telugu hit draws heavy inspiration from the films mentioned above.
The formula caper has its elements of sugary sweetness but there's no amount of painstaking labour that saves this film from being a rehash material. Even the loud over the top comedy can only work for the people who find amateurish attempts funny or derive sadist pleasure in unintentional humour.
The South Indian filmmaking style can be seen in the way the characters are established or the humour is doled out which may work for the people in South but in mainstream Bollywood it only appears like a jaded and annoying product.
Debutant Girish Kumar who also happens to be the producer Kumar Taurani's son gets a perfect platform to showcase every element of being a hero. Right from playing a Casanova to the love-sick pup to even the hero who beats villains to pulp, Girish can be seen profiling himself in every manner possible throughout the film, not to mention the many lovey-dovey songs and dance numbers.
Shruti Haasan who has another film D-Day releasing this week itself tries too hard to play the girl-next-door, a role typified by Amrita Rao in Bollywood at present and fails terribly at it. Barring just expressions of crying and sulking Haasan barely gets to offer more.
Music by Sachin Jigar works in part. While some songs grow on you slowly the others are just ear-splitting and torturous.
Ramaiya Vastavaiya in short in a highly formulaic film which has absolutely nothing novel to offer. A clear case of old wine in a new bottle.
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